Journal
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Volume 201, Issue -, Pages 16-22Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.10.086
Keywords
Nanomaterials; Wastewater; Titanium dioxide; Fullerenes; Biosolids
Categories
Funding
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [RD831713, RD833322]
- Water Environment Research Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
As engineered nanomaterials (NMs) become used in industry and commerce their loading to sewage will increase. In this research, sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated with hydraulic (HRT) and sludge (SRT) retention times representative of full-scale biological WWTPs for several weeks. Under environmentally relevant NM loadings and biomass concentrations, NMs had negligible effects on ability of the wastewater bacteria to biodegrade organic material, as measured by chemical oxygen demand (COD). Carboxy-terminated polymer coated silver nanoparticles (fn-Ag) were removed less effectively (88% removal) than hydroxylated fullerenes (fullerols; >90% removal), nano TiO2 (>95% removal) or aqueous fullerenes (nC(60); >95% removal). Experiments conducted over 4 months with daily loadings of nC(60) showed that nC(60) removal from solution depends on the biomass concentration. Under conditions representative of most suspended growth biological WWTPs (e.g., activated sludge), most of the NMs will accumulate in biosolids rather than in liquid effluent discharged to surface waters. Significant fractions of fn-Ag were associated with colloidal material which suggests that efficient particle separation processes (sedimentation or filtration) could further improve removal of NM from effluent. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available